The Demon of the Sea
by Shaggy the Cat
Summary: Haley Davidson, once known as the Demon of the Sea, was once one of the most feared pirates alive. Now, with her capture upon her own ship and the slaughter of her crew, the information locked away in her head is the only thing keeping her alive. Unfortunately, she has no intention of letting it past her lips. Rated M for sexual content, violence, and language. SnakexOC
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

The deck of the _Demon Spawn_ creaked as Sebastian Michaelis, first mate to Ciel Phantomhive, stepped upon it, arms loaded with supplies for the long journey ahead. The _Demon Spawn _was a sleek, dark ship, as silent and deadly on the seven seas as the cat or owl on the hunt. She had been aptly named, so many said.

The current crew of the ship had not named her; the previous captain had. The ship had been built by that same captain, a captain not easily taken down. As hard as it had been, the pirate had eventually been brought down, and now sat awaiting death in the brig.

Sebastian left what he'd purchased in the hands of Baldroy, the cook who burned nearly everything and had not quite gotten his sea legs yet, before heading down to the brig. Pluto, the prison's guard, sat staring at the only occupied cell, giving only a soft grunt when Sebastian acknowledged his presence. Pluto had been abandoned and left to die shortly after birth, and had been rescued and raised by a pack of wild dogs. He rarely ever acted human, but there was no one more loyal, and no better guard dog. The only irony of the situation was that their only prisoner seemed to have no intention of escaping, but was closely guarded all the same. They needed her alive.

The brig's only occuant, a young pirate named Haley Davidson, had been the previous captain of the _Demon Spawn _and had once had a fearsome but honorable reputation. She had been commonly referred to as "The Demon of the Sea", and for good reason. Before her downfall, she'd been one of the most feared pirates alive, and had been described as being ruthless, cold, and intimidating. Rumor had it she'd once made an old enemy of hers dance endlessly until he'd fallen to the ground dead. However many prisoners she'd taken during her time, few had ever been killed, and all of those had been personal enemies of hers. The rest she'd set free, if she believed they could change their ways. It was said she had a softer side, one that melted her crueler one at the sight of anything small and furry. Rats and mice found on the ship were safely kept and fed until released onto land. However, looking at her now, it was hard to believe she had ever once been feared despite her young age.

The former captain had now grown terribly gaunt and haggard, and had grown ghostly pale due to lack of exposure to sunlight. She was ungroomed, thick tawny hair matted and tangled beyond hope of ever restoring. Unlike most female pirates - unlike any woman of that period at all, actually - she did not wear skirts or dresses but pantaloons and shirts; but even now her clothes were shredded. For some reason there was a corner of the cell that had a great number of nails jutting from the wood, and she often used this as a bed instead of the straw mat provided. As such she was often scratched and bleeding; it was a wonder she hadn't lost an eye yet. The only characteristic that still remained was the cold fire that burned in her hazel eyes, a fire full of hate, malice, disgust.

The meager meal left for her earlier in the day had gone untouched; for some reason she had taken to eating only in small amounts, if at all unless forced to. She ate and drank enough only to stay alive, even if it had to be forced down her throat. They needed her alive, and she knew it, but she never said a word that they wanted to hear.

The former captain raised her head meekly and turned to face Sebastian with a frozen grin on her thin lips. Even in the dark he could see where her ribs and vertebrae poked through her flesh and were outlined by the rips in her shirt.

"So, Sebastian," she purred coldly, "little mister One-Eye sent you back down here to loosen my lips, eh? Ain't happenin', no matter what dirty little tricks you try to pull."

Those were bold words. Sebastian had a reputation for luring women into his bed so he could extract information from them. Haley was so far the only one who could resist him, so he'd stopped trying.

"No tricks this time, my lady. However, the captain has informed me that if you tell us the location of what we seek, you will be allowed better living conditions and basic rights aboard this ship. I trust him to keep his word. If not, you will continue living down here, and if the captain becomes too impatient you shall carry that information to a watery grave, since you had the intelligence of memorizing the information then burning the map. What is locked in your head is the only thing keeping you alive."

"Then tell your captain that he can play this little game of his for eternity, but he will never get me to crack." Her voice lowered to a snarl.

"Very well. I shall inform him of your decision once he wakes." With that he left.

Hsley grumbled something under her breath, then curled up in the nail-infested corner of her cell. When she appeared to be asleep, Pluto stood and walked over to the bars for a closer look, only to jump back yelping when her eyes flashed open. She chuckled in amusement, then focused her hearing above the ship's deck. Captain Ciel Phantomhive she knew was asleep; lookout Finnian had probably fallen asleep in the crow's nest again; cabin girl Mey-Rin had dropped the wax bucket again; Tanaka was doing nothing as usual; and Snake...well, she didn't really want to know what he was doing. She found Baldroy somewhat amusing, not only because of his ability to become seasick easily, but also for what he'd dubbed the parts of the ship. He persisted in calling the bow "the pointed end", the stern "the blunt end", the mast "the sticky-up bit" (unless the sails were infurled, when he called it "the washing"), and the bowsprit "the sticky-out bit". As for port and starboard, he said it was all the same to him when he leaned over it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Haley yawned, pushed herself to her feet, then sniffed the air. Through the musty scents of the prison she could smell the ocean. There was a storm brewing. It probably would not break and unleash its fury on the sea for several days, but it was there and it could not be ignored. She should tell Phantomhive, but none of the current crew were seamen and they wouldn't be able to tell the calm before the storm from the ordinary tang of the sea. They'd think she'd gone insane, which was what she wanted them to think anyway. It was all a game to her, a form of amusement, this pretending. There was nothing to do down in the cell, and nothing to entertain herself with. It was also common for prisoners to go insane if they were kept in one place with restricted movement and human contact, so what better form of entertainment than to make them think it had already happened?

She stood in silence for a moment, then coughed. Her chest was beginning to ache. It might be because of the conditions of where she was confined, but there was no way to prove it. She sat down, coughed again, then picked up the small loaf of bread that had been brought for today's meal. It was dry and tasteless, but she forced herself to eat it. There was only so far an act of insanity could go, and she believed she'd reached it. She could feel where her ribs and spine were starting to stick out. She'd had enough. It was alright now, though. She could detect no movement on deck, and Pluto was asleep. She might as well act somewhat civilized while she had the chance. With any luck, she would surrender to this show of hers and truly become insane. Maybe it would already have happened, if she hadn't kept herself awake to her true nature by using the pain of the nails jutting through the floor. It was painful, but effective. She had yet to give way to the clutches of losing her mind completely.

The unexpected tapping of shoes above her head forced her to drop what little remained of the loaf and scrabble back into the nail-infested corner of her cell. She recognized Sebastian's step - out of all the members of the crew he came down most often to relay news and to ask whether or not she felt ready to spill her guts. The other was one of two she rarely heard, either Tanaka's or Snake's. Tanaka's step was a bit slow, when he moved at all, and a bit heavy. This one was lighter and seemed a bit hesitant. It must have been Snake's.

Snake was the only member of the crew she knew little about. She'd heard he had been rescued from a freak show about a month or two back, and that he was said to be half-snake, but that was it. She'd never seen him, so she didn't know for sure. Apparently she was about to.

Curled into her typical sleeping position, she kept one eye half-open to observe. Sebastian stepped in, and a short way behind him a young-looking, thin man with silvery hair followed. Small patches of scales were nearly invisible against his pale skin. He seemed nervous, judging from the way his bright yellow eyes looked about in a jumpy manner. Then his eyes settled on her, and she quickly closed her open eye. The hushed murmur from Sebastian didn't bother her in the least. He was telling this young man what he had told Finnian, Mey-Rin, and Baldroy when they had been recruited: Her daily habits (or at least the ones he knew of), her tendencies to make threats, etc. It had become her reputation aboard the ship now, and in all honesty she hated it. But as long as she kept the façade up, hopefully nothing would happen to her. Hopefully.

A strangled cough forced its way past her lips, harsher than before, before she quieted and settled back down. Sebastian left without a word, but she could tell that Snake still remained, yellow eyes observing her in silence. She pried an eye open, and, managing a small hidden smile, winked. He turned to leave and was halfway to the door when he looked back, as though he were unsure whether or not he'd seen something. But her eyes were closed now, and there was no obvious movement, as though she'd slipped into sleep within an instant. Then he left.

Haley remained curled up in silence, then sat up, picked up what was left of the bread, and began eating again. She somehow had a feeling she'd be seeing Snake again sometime soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sure, Snake had heard tales of the legendary captain of the _Demon Spawn_, but when Sebastian had taken him to see the former captain for the first time since joining the crew, he'd expected a wild-eyed young woman, screaming strings of curses and reaching through the bars of the cell to strangle whomever happened to get too close. What he'd found instead was a silent, pale, apparently ill, curled-up scrap that could have been anything had it not been wearing clothing. Then she had winked at him, or so he thought, but when he'd done a double-take there was no evidence to support it. Had she really winked at him, or was he going mad? A solution came to him a while later.

To give poor Pluto a break, on Sundays and Wednesdays the other members of the crew - excepting Captain Phantomhive and Sebastian (and Snake himself, up until now, which was why he'd been brought to the brig in the first place) - took shifts keeping an eye on their prisoner. Although she had no intention of escaping or harming any of them, she suddenly started screaming fits for unknown reasons, and the others had turned it into a sort of game: two points for "freedom", four for "calamity", and six for "death to Phantomhive". The object of it was to see how many points one could collect in a single shift. Hopefully during his shift the next day he could find out what it was she was planning.

* * *

"Alrighty, Snake. It's yer shift."

Snake's eyes shifted from his coral snake Emily to Baldroy's roughly-hewn face. "Fifty-eight points. Try n' beat that."

He led himself down into the brig. The former captain was pacing, stopping every few minutes or so to cough harshly into the crook of her elbow. If possible, she looked even more pale than she had been the first time. Her hazel eyes shifted from the floor to him, and he turned away. Were she not so malnourished and haggard, she might be rather pretty, but he kept the thought to himself. She stopped, still looking at him, then began detangling the ends of her hair with her thin fingers.

"It's safe to sit down, you know."

He was a bit startled, hearing someone supposedly insane speaking to him so formally, but he sat down. She did the same, coughing as she did so.

"You can come closer, if you want." When he hesitated, she added, "I won't harm you, if that's what you're thinking. Right now I couldn't squash a fly if I sat on it. I wouldn't hurt a fly, anyway, unless it were extremely bothersome." A faint smile graced her lips. "That's a bit better. Your name is Snake, correct?" He nodded slowly. "I'll bet they haven't told you what it is they're looking for, right?" Another nod. "Would you mind if I told you?" A shake. "One of the largest treasure hoards in history. They say it's guarded by ancient demons, powerful enough to flatten mountains and bury oceans just by blinking. If so, it's very well-guarded, but not so much a secret. Anyone foolish enough to seek it would be met with a bitter end. What's that look for? Oh, do you think I was that foolish to seek it? Possibly, but I had a different reason for doing so. I was seeking to help guard it, not steal it. I may be dense, but Haley Davidson is no idiot."

He nodded in understanding, and she coughed. "Very well, then. Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

As a matter of fact, there was. He was uncomfortable with speaking, so he sought a scrap of parchment and a bit of charcoal. Literacy was one of the few things he prided himself in. The former captain looked at what he'd written and smirked.

_"How did you become a pirate?"_

__"That, lad, is a question no one has asked me in years, and I'll tell you. But first, your stomach tells me it's about noon, and so does mine. Why not go get yourself something to eat? The story is a bit long, but don't worry; I'll be done before your shift ends."

* * *

When he arrived in the kitchen, Snake had already made his mind up to get food not just for him, but for Haley as well. She must have been hungrier than she was letting on about, and it was cruel to keep her on rations. Luckily, Baldroy didn't seem to mind the young man helping himself to bread, fruit, and cheese. The former captain seemed confused when he returned, but when she realized what he was doing she accepted what was offered without protest before launching into her tale.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I forgot to mention this, but go ahead and flame me. I won't stop you. I'll just sit back, relax, eat my bacon tacos, and let the other nice people out there rain total hell on you. They have my permission to do so.**

* * *

Chapter 4

_**Six years** **prior...**_

_The day that would start the rest of her life started with her chasing rather furiously after a cat._

_It wasn't that Haley hated cats - no, she loved the furry little critters no matter what body parts they were missing. It was this one cat in particular that she hated. The cat lived up to her name - Bonkers - because that was what she was. There was no telling how many nights the ten year-old had gotten out of bed to relieve herself or get a drink, and the cat had jumped on her in a howling ball of white fur and bone. There was no counting the scars she'd gained - and no telling how much blood she'd lost. She loved her dear old uncle to death, but his cat was another matter._

_Her uncle, a skinny silver-haired mortician everyone else called the Undertaker because no one knew his name, had woken her up that morning patting her head and tapping the tip of her nose with a long black fingernail and asking her to bring the cat in. Bonkers, being Bonkers, sat outside the door to the mortuary until Haley made a grab for her. Then she took off in a skinny white blur, kicking up clouds of dust from the road as the equally-skinny girl ran after her. No one knew why the cat was so nuts. Perhaps the constant reek of the mortuary. If so, Haley herself would have gone crazy ten years ago. Her parents had been killed shortly after her birth, and Undertaker had taken her in. He was the only family she had. The cat was not included._

_Haley had finally managed to corner the skinny white cat near the docks, where several pirate ships were moored and many more ready to set sail again. Bonkers perched on the side of one of the ships, licking lazily at a sickle-clawed paw, while the girl below tried yelling at the cat to get down. The cat might as well have stuck her tongue out when Haley's voice had gone hoarse, because within an instant she was bounding up the ramp that connected the ship's deck and the dock._

_The chase went on for another ten minutes or so, until she once again had Bonkers cornered below the deck. Then she pounced and landed on empty air where the cat had been. She could hear footsteps above her head, and decided not to risk what might happen were she to be caught. The cat forgotten, she tucked herself away in a corner. The room she was in stank of rum and whiskey, and added with the gentle rocking of the ship she soon fell into a woozy slumber._

* * *

_"Oi, Cap'n! Methinks we gots us a stowaway!" Something prodded her in the flank, and she grunted, still mostly asleep. "Reckon we could eats it?"_

_"Naw, Gonff, a liddle bony, wouldn't you say?" A new voice, deeper and gentler-sounding than the one that had spoken first. Haley rubbed her eyes lazily and yawned, then staggered to her feet. Two men, one about as tall as Undertaker but much bigger, and the other thin and lanky, stood in front of her. They didn't look particularly angry or upset, just confused and curious as to why a scrawny ten-year-old was hidden in the rum cellar. The larger one stroked his chin as he regarded her with bright blue eyes before holding out a beefy hand to help steady her; she was still a bit woozy from the stink of the cellar. "The name's Captain Luke, and this here's Gonff, me first mate. Ya got a name, lass?"_

_"Haley Davidson."_

_"What're ya doin' on the_ Sayna_, lass?"_

_She quickly told Captain Luke the story of chasing after her uncle's cat, and replied, "He's the undertaker in London, Captain, sir," when he inquired who her uncle was. This brought a roar of a belly-laugh from the burly man._

_"So yer Unnertaker's lass! I coulda sworn the name rang a bell; I ain't seen ya since you was a babe!" He explained that he was an old friend of Undertaker and her father and had assisted the mortician in taking care of her before the sea had called him out again. "Never woulda imagined seein' ya again, let alone aboard me own ship! Come 'ere, lass, an' let's go send the old fool a message that yer safe 'ere wid me! He's prob'ly concerned, but ya can never tell with 'im and that goofy grin o' his!"_

* * *

_Three years later, Haley was still aboard the _Sayna_, no longer a stowaway but Luke's first mate. Old Gonff had died due to yellow fever a month or two earlier, and none of the other pirates aboard the ship had the guts to take up the position. Luke often said he hadn't regretted letting her stay on the _Sayna_ - with Undertaker's permission, of course - because she had turned just as quick and deadly as any man on the sea. He often called her a "liddle she-devil" because he claimed he'd "birthed a sea demon even worse than Blackbeard." She had gained an air of authority, and she was well-respected, not only by the rest of the crew but by other pirates as well. The stormy essence of the ocean had woven its way into her very being, but the rest of the girl - the shy, polite, and quiet side - still remained. Luke said she reminded him of his deceased wife Sayna, for whom the ship had been named, and said having her was just as well as having Sayna by his side again._

_hen came the day Luke called her into his cabin for the first time in months. "Lass, do ya know what this is?" he asked when she'd sat down, holding out a piece of parchment with a black ink blot on it. She slowly shook her head. "I recently remembered that ya ain't seen this before and I ain't told ya. This 'ere is the Black Spot. It's a death sentence - not for you, or the rest of the crew, but me. There is nothin' more humiliatin' that bein' hanged by other pirates and mauled 'til long after yer dead. That's why I want ya t' get the leakiest boat ya can find, bind me hands and feet, and send me into the sea. It's this old man's last wish. Yer young, I know, but you'll lead this crew better than I ever could, ya liddle she-devil." With that he removed his hat and plopped it onto her head. She removed it again, staring at it as though staring into the abyss. Then she said, "I'm afraid I can't do that, Captain. I can't very well lead you to your death, but I have another solution, if you'll have it, I mean. I could find the best boat we have and set you to the sea, and you can find an island or something and live out the rest of your days in peace. You won't have to worry about them finding you."_

_Luke stroked his chin, then sighed and tousled her hair. "Alrighty, lass, we'll go with yer idea. At least I'll hopefully live out me days in solitude and peace. And maybe, just maybe, I might see Sayna again when I die."_

_"Tell her I said hello if you do, Captain."_


End file.
